The communicative and pragmatic potential of sub-standard vocabulary

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the sub-standard vocabulary of the English language using examples of American slang, which makes up its main part. The development of language and society entails the constant emergence of new units of both standard and non-standard vocabulary. Knowledge of this layer of vocabulary is necessary for a better understanding of native English speakers, modern literature and mass media. The definitions and stylistic characteristics of the layers of non-standard vocabulary are indicated, combining them into a lexico-semantic paradigm based on the principle of socio-cultural and stylistic determinism of their functioning. The communicative structure of a literary text as a linguocultural space is determined to identify the stylistic characteristics of non-standard lexical units. The features of the conceptualization of the world through non-standard vocabulary are revealed. In addition, the article describes the communicative and pragmatic techniques of non-standard vocabulary at the lexical and semantic levels. At the word-formation level, non-standard compatibility manifests itself, as a rule, through a language game created with the help of word-formation means, as a rule, it is affixation, contamination, abbreviation, truncation.